Right-Wing Biological Dread

Kate Garsombke

| December 21, 2001

Right-Wing Biological Dread: The Subhumans Are
Coming! The Subhumans Are Coming!, Ronald Bailey, Reason
magazineConcerns among conservative intellectuals that
strides in biotechnology could be manipulated to create a race of
subhumans are unrealistic, according to Ronald Bailey in the
libertarian magazine Reason. Current biotech research
is aimed at finding therapeutic benefits for people, and many
conservatives are misrepresenting experiments by 'spinning far
darker versions' of studies. DNA -- human or animal -- is the
chemical on which the code for how to make proteins is inscribed,
and that's where the confusion lies. 'They are treating human DNA
as though it were sacred,' Bailey says. 'Human DNA in a pig or a
petunia will make a protein, not a human being.' And even if
pig-boys and monkey-girls were to become a reality, Bailey says
bioluddites are forgetting practical concerns, 'like the fact that
mothers willing to bear 'subhuman slaves' in their wombs are likely
to be scarce.'--Kate GarsombkeGo there>>